Path to a Dietitian by Kaili

Path to a Dietitian by Kaili - February 2024 Scholarship Essay

Many people choose careers that represent them. I wanted to do the same. For a long time, I did not know what represented me. So I said I wanted to do many different occupations, picking anything that I thought might be decent enough to do later in life. However, I soon realized that I was not satisfied with my choices or picking random jobs. Because of this, I started exploring. I would use my free time to explore fields of interest and deeper into the more unknown fields that people do not talk about as much. After researching and reading through job descriptions, watching videos of a day in the life of different careers, I found the perfect job for me, a nutritionist.
Throughout high school and going back to middle school, I was always interested in health. The number one memory I have was in my eighth grade health class where my teacher showed us a video of factories and how meat was produced. This showed the process of an alive chicken all the way to the end result of the meat in the grocery store. He warned us that the video was going to be gruesome and most likely hard for us to watch. I was worried because I get grossed out easily, especially with blood. However, when I watched the video, I was deeply interested in what was going on. Sometimes, my friend and I talk in class, but on that day she was absent. Sometimes I like to think that if she had been there that day then I would not have paid as much attention to the video. So in a way, my friend might have influenced my entire career choice before I even realized it.
My friend was not the only one who influenced my interest in nutrition, though that was definitely the start of it. For the majority of my life I have lived in a small apartment with my mom and my two older sisters. Because of the small space, there is no privacy, including in the kitchen. We buy an unhealthy amount of junk food and eat an unhealthy amount of junk food. When I was younger, I did not think as much about this, but in high school especially after covid where I was pretty much trapped in my house with all the junk food, I began realizing how bad this problem truly was. I have been taking action by cutting out chips, soda, and certain cookies (sorry, I cannot get rid of them all). I even started helping my mom by cooking even though I am the youngest so that we can make healthier meals too. An example of this is when I researched products that are good for decreasing inflammation such as spinach or kale and I incorporate those into pastas or other foods since they do not have a big impact on taste. I also make body detox or smoothies which include fruits, apple cider vinegar, flax or chia seeds, and other products that are good for the body. My goal is to start small and help myself, my family, and then others as well.
My goal is to help people become healthier without completely destroying the types of foods they enjoy. I also want people to understand the importance of eating healthy and limiting junk foods. I plan to go to college and get a master’s in nutrition. My goal will benefit society since it will help Americans become healthier as a whole. I have started small and want to grow my impact throughout the world. Though I obviously cannot do it alone, hopefully with this scholarship, I can continue my journey to improving the health of society.